LISTEN: Durban snake rescuer saves python from being cattle herder's dinner
Well-known snake catcher - Nick Evans - says he didn't have to do much catching when he was called to assist a community near Verulam.
A concerned Osindisweni resident reported that a python, weighing almost 9-kilos [8.8kg] was being kept by a local herdsman.
"This resident has learned of a cattle herder who captured a python and had intended to eat it, but thankfully the concerned resident talked the man out of it and convinced him to hand it over to us. So I went up there to collect the snake."
Evans says they'd discovered the snake had just laid eggs.
READ: Nick Evans and the mystery of the missing hamster
"She lost a lot of weight when she laid eggs but unlike most snakes, pythons actually stay with their eggs and incubate them.
"They will go lie in the sun and then come back down to the eggs, wrap around them and keep them warm. And during this time, they don't eat. So, sometimes they don't regain that weight and they can die."
